Terminology¶

Following terms are used for convenience.

Mandatory break is obligatory line breaking behavior defined by core rules and performed regardless of surrounding characters. Arbitrary break is line breaking behavior allowed by core rules and chosen by user to perform it. Arbitrary break includes direct break and indirect break defined by [UAX #14].

Alphabetic characters are characters usually no line breaks are allowed between pairs of them, except that other characters provide break oppotunities. Ideographic characters are characters that usually allow line breaks both before and after themselves. [UAX #14] classifies most of alphabetic to AL and most of ideographic to ID (These terms are inaccurate from the point of view by grammatology). On several scripts, breaking positions are not obvious by each characters therefore heuristic based on dictionary is used.

Number of columns of a string is not always equal to the number of characters it contains: Each of characters is either wide, narrow or nonspacing; they occupy 2, 1 or 0 columns, respectively. Several characters may be both wide and narrow by the contexts they are used. Characters may have more various widths by customization.

Line Breaking¶

new ([KEY => VALUE, ...])

Constructor. About KEY => VALUE pairs see "Options".

break (STRING)

Instance method. Break Unicode string STRING and returns it. In array context, returns array of lines contained in the result.

break_partial (STRING)

Instance method. Same as break() but accepts incremental inputs. Give "undef" as STRING argument to specify that input was completed.

config (KEY)

config (KEY => VALUE, ...)

Instance method. Get or update configuration. About KEY => VALUE pairs see "Options".

copy

Copy constructor. Create a copy of object instance.

Getting Informations¶

breakingRule (BEFORESTR, AFTERSTR)

Instance method. Get possible line breaking behavior between strings BEFORESTR and AFTERSTR. See "Constants" for returned value.

Note: This method gives just approximate description of line breaking behavior. Use break() and so on to wrap actual texts.

context ([Charset => CHARSET], [Language => LANGUAGE])

Function. Get language/region context used by character set CHARSET or language LANGUAGE.

Options¶

"new" and "config" methods accept following pairs. Some of them affect number of columns ([E]), grapheme cluster segmentation ([G]) (see also Unicode::GCString) or line breaking behavior ([L]).

BreakIndent => "YES" | "NO"

[L] Always allows break after SPACEs at beginning of line, a.k.a. indent. [UAX #14] does not take account of such usage of SPACE. Default is "YES".

Note: This option was introduced at release 1.011.

CharMax => NUMBER

[L] Possible maximum number of characters in one line, not counting trailing SPACEs and newline sequence. Note that number of characters generally doesn't represent length of line. Default is 998. 0 means unlimited (as of release 2012.01).

ColMin => NUMBER

[L] Minimum number of columns which line broken arbitrarily may include, not counting trailing spaces and newline sequences. Default is 0.

ColMax => NUMBER

[L] Maximum number of columns line may include not counting trailing spaces and newline sequence. In other words, maximum length of line. Default is 76.

See also "Urgent" option and "User-Defined Breaking Behaviors".

ComplexBreaking => "YES" | "NO"

[L] Performs heuristic breaking on South East Asian complex context. Default is, if word segmentation for South East Asian writing systems is enabled, "YES".

Context => CONTEXT

[E][L] Specify language/region context. Currently available contexts are "EASTASIAN" and "NONEASTASIAN". Default context is "NONEASTASIAN".

In "EASTASIAN" context, characters with East_Asian_Width property ambiguous (A) are treated as "wide" and with Line Breaking Class AI as ideographic (ID).

In "NONEASTASIAN" context, characters with East_Asian_Width property ambiguous (A) are treated as "narrow" and with Line Breaking Class AI as alphabetic (AL).

EAWidth => "[" ORD "=>" PROPERTY "]"

EAWidth => "undef"

[E] Tailor classification of East_Asian_Width property. ORD is UCS scalar value of character or array reference of them. PROPERTY is one of East_Asian_Width property values and extended values (See "Constants"). This option may be specified multiple times. If "undef" is specified, all tailoring assigned before will be canceled.

By default, no tailorings are available. See also "Tailoring Character Properties".

Format => METHOD

[L] Specify the method to format broken lines.

HangulAsAL => "YES" | "NO"

[L] Treat hangul syllables and conjoining jamos as alphabetic characters (AL). Default is "NO".

LBClass => "[" ORD "=>" CLASS "]"

LBClass => "undef"

[G][L] Tailor classification of line breaking property. ORD is UCS scalar value of character or array reference of them. CLASS is one of line breaking classes (See "Constants"). This option may be specified multiple times. If "undef" is specified, all tailoring assigned before will be canceled.

By default, no tailorings are available. See also "Tailoring Character Properties".

LegacyCM => "YES" | "NO"

[G][L] Treat combining characters lead by a SPACE as an isolated combining character (ID). As of Unicode 5.0, such use of SPACE is not recommended. Default is "YES".

Newline => STRING

[L] Unicode string to be used for newline sequence. Default is "\n".

Prep => METHOD

[L] Add user-defined line breaking behavior(s). This option may be specified multiple times. Following methods are available.

Sizing => METHOD

[L] Specify method to calculate size of string. Following options are available.

Urgent => METHOD

[L] Specify method to handle excessing lines. Following options are available.

ViramaAsJoiner => "YES" | "NO"

[G] Virama sign ("halant" in Hindi, "coeng" in Khmer) and its succeeding letter are not broken. Default is "YES". Note: This option was introduced by release 2012.001_29. On previous releases, it was fixed to "NO". "Default" grapheme cluster defined by [UAX #29] does not include this feature.

Constants¶

"EA_Na", "EA_N", "EA_A", "EA_W", "EA_H", "EA_F"

Index values to specify six East_Asian_Width property values defined by [UAX #11]: narrow (Na), neutral (N), ambiguous (A), wide (W), halfwidth (H) and fullwidth (F).

"EA_Z"

Index value to specify nonspacing characters.

Note: This "nonspacing" value is extension by this module, not a part of [UAX #11].

"LB_BK", "LB_CR", "LB_LF", "LB_NL", "LB_SP", "LB_OP", "LB_CL", "LB_CP", "LB_QU", "LB_GL", "LB_NS", "LB_EX", "LB_SY", "LB_IS", "LB_PR", "LB_PO", "LB_NU", "LB_AL", "LB_HL", "LB_ID", "LB_IN", "LB_HY", "LB_BA", "LB_BB", "LB_B2", "LB_CB", "LB_ZW", "LB_CM", "LB_WJ", "LB_H2", "LB_H3", "LB_JL", "LB_JV", "LB_JT", "LB_SG", "LB_AI", "LB_CJ", "LB_SA", "LB_XX", "LB_RI"

Index values to specify 40 line breaking property values (classes) defined by [UAX #14].

Note: Property value CP was introduced by Unicode 5.2.0. Property values HL and CJ were introduced by Unicode 6.1.0. Property value RI was introduced by Unicode 6.2.0.

"MANDATORY", "DIRECT", "INDIRECT", "PROHIBITED"

Four values to specify line breaking behaviors: Mandatory break; Both direct break and indirect break are allowed; Indirect break is allowed but direct break is prohibited; Prohibited break.

"Unicode::LineBreak::SouthEastAsian::supported"

Flag to determin if word segmentation for South East Asian writing systems is enabled. If this feature was enabled, a non-empty string is set. Otherwise, "undef" is set.

N.B.: Current release supports Thai script of modern Thai language only.

"UNICODE_VERSION"

A string to specify version of Unicode standard this module refers.

Formatting Lines¶

If you specify subroutine reference as a value of "Format" option, it should accept three arguments:

    $MODIFIED = &subroutine(SELF, EVENT, STR);

SELF is a Unicode::LineBreak object, EVENT is a string to determine the context that subroutine was called in, and STR is a fragment of Unicode string leading or trailing breaking position.

    EVENT |When Fired           |Value of STR
    -----------------------------------------------------------------
    "sot" |Beginning of text    |Fragment of first line
    "sop" |After mandatory break|Fragment of next line
    "sol" |After arbitrary break|Fragment on sequel of line
    ""    |Just before any      |Complete line without trailing
          |breaks               |SPACEs
    "eol" |Arbitrary break      |SPACEs leading breaking position
    "eop" |Mandatory break      |Newline and its leading SPACEs
    "eot" |End of text          |SPACEs (and newline) at end of
          |                     |text
    -----------------------------------------------------------------

Subroutine should return modified text fragment or may return "undef" to express that no modification occurred. Note that modification in the context of "sot", "sop" or "sol" may affect decision of successive breaking positions while in the others won't.

Note: String arguments are actually sequences of grapheme clusters. See Unicode::GCString.

For example, following code folds lines removing trailing spaces:

    sub fmt {
        if ($_[1] =~ /^eo/) {
            return "\n";
        }
        return undef;
    }
    my $lb = Unicode::LineBreak->new(Format => \&fmt);
    $output = $lb->break($text);

User-Defined Breaking Behaviors¶

When a line generated by arbitrary break is expected to be beyond measure of either CharMax, ColMax or ColMin, urgent break may be performed on successive string. If you specify subroutine reference as a value of "Urgent" option, it should accept two arguments:

    @BROKEN = &subroutine(SELF, STR);

SELF is a Unicode::LineBreak object and STR is a Unicode string to be broken.

Subroutine should return an array of broken string STR.

Note: String argument is actually a sequence of grapheme clusters. See Unicode::GCString.

For example, following code inserts hyphen to the name of several chemical substances (such as Titin) so that it may be folded:

    sub hyphenize {
        return map {$_ =~ s/yl$/yl-/; $_} split /(\w+?yl(?=\w))/, $_[1];
    }
    my $lb = Unicode::LineBreak->new(Urgent => \&hyphenize);
    $output = $lb->break("Methionylthreonylthreonylglutaminylarginyl...");

If you specify [REGEX, SUBREF] array reference as any of "Prep" option, subroutine should accept two arguments:

    @BROKEN = &subroutine(SELF, STR);

SELF is a Unicode::LineBreak object and STR is a Unicode string matched with REGEX.

Subroutine should return an array of broken string STR.

For example, following code will break HTTP URLs using [CMOS] rule.

    my $url = qr{http://[\x21-\x7E]+}i;
    sub breakurl {
        my $self = shift;
        my $str = shift;
        return split m{(?<=[/]) (?=[^/]) |
                       (?<=[^-.]) (?=[-~.,_?\#%=&]) |
                       (?<=[=&]) (?=.)}x, $str;
    }
    my $lb = Unicode::LineBreak->new(Prep => [$url, \&breakurl]);
    $output = $lb->break($string);

Preserving State

Unicode::LineBreak object can behave as hash reference. Any items may be preserved throughout its life.

For example, following code will separate paragraphs with empty lines.

    sub paraformat {
        my $self = shift;
        my $action = shift;
        my $str = shift;
        
        if ($action eq 'sot' or $action eq 'sop') {
            $self->{'line'} = '';
        } elsif ($action eq '') {
            $self->{'line'} = $str;
        } elsif ($action eq 'eol') {
            return "\n";
        } elsif ($action eq 'eop') {
            if (length $self->{'line'}) {
                return "\n\n";
            } else {
                return "\n";
            }
        } elsif ($action eq 'eot') {
            return "\n";
        }
        return undef;
    }
    my $lb = Unicode::LineBreak->new(Format => \&paraformat);
    $output = $lb->break($string);

Calculating String Size¶

If you specify subroutine reference as a value of "Sizing" option, it will be called with five arguments:

    $COLS = &subroutine(SELF, LEN, PRE, SPC, STR);

SELF is a Unicode::LineBreak object, LEN is size of preceding string, PRE is preceding Unicode string, SPC is additional SPACEs and STR is a Unicode string to be processed.

Subroutine should return calculated number of columns of "PRE.SPC.STR". The number of columns may not be an integer: Unit of the number may be freely chosen, however, it should be same as those of "ColMin" and "ColMax" option.

Note: String arguments are actually sequences of grapheme clusters. See Unicode::GCString.

For example, following code processes lines with tab stops by each eight columns.

    sub tabbedsizing {
        my ($self, $cols, $pre, $spc, $str) = @_;
    
        my $spcstr = $spc.$str;
        while ($spcstr->lbc == LB_SP) {
            my $c = $spcstr->item(0);
            if ($c eq "\t") {
                $cols += 8 - $cols % 8;
            } else {
                $cols += $c->columns;
            }
            $spcstr = $spcstr->substr(1);
        }
        $cols += $spcstr->columns;
        return $cols;
    };
    my $lb = Unicode::LineBreak->new(LBClass => [ord("\t") => LB_SP],
                                     Sizing => \&tabbedsizing);
    $output = $lb->break($string);

Tailoring Character Properties¶

Character properties may be tailored by "LBClass" and "EAWidth" options. Some constants are defined for convenience of tailoring.

Line Breaking Properties

Non-starters of Kana-like Characters

By default, several hiragana, katakana and characters corresponding to kana are treated as non-starters (NS or CJ). When the following pair(s) are specified for value of "LBClass" option, these characters are treated as normal ideographic characters (ID).

"KANA_NONSTARTERS() => LB_ID"

All of characters below.

"IDEOGRAPHIC_ITERATION_MARKS() => LB_ID"

Ideographic iteration marks. U+3005 IDEOGRAPHIC ITERATION MARK, U+303B VERTICAL IDEOGRAPHIC ITERATION MARK, U+309D HIRAGANA ITERATION MARK, U+309E HIRAGANA VOICED ITERATION MARK, U+30FD KATAKANA ITERATION MARK and U+30FE KATAKANA VOICED ITERATION MARK.

N.B. Some of them are neither hiragana nor katakana.

"KANA_SMALL_LETTERS() => LB_ID"

"KANA_PROLONGED_SOUND_MARKS() => LB_ID"

Hiragana or katakana small letters: Hiragana small letters U+3041 A, U+3043 I, U+3045 U, U+3047 E, U+3049 O, U+3063 TU, U+3083 YA, U+3085 YU, U+3087 YO, U+308E WA, U+3095 KA, U+3096 KE. Katakana small letters U+30A1 A, U+30A3 I, U+30A5 U, U+30A7 E, U+30A9 O, U+30C3 TU, U+30E3 YA, U+30E5 YU, U+30E7 YO, U+30EE WA, U+30F5 KA, U+30F6 KE. Katakana phonetic extensions U+31F0 KU - U+31FF RO. Halfwidth katakana small letters U+FF67 A - U+FF6F TU.

Hiragana or katakana prolonged sound marks: U+30FC KATAKANA-HIRAGANA PROLONGED SOUND MARK and U+FF70 HALFWIDTH KATAKANA-HIRAGANA PROLONGED SOUND MARK.

N.B. These letters are optionally treated either as non-starter or as normal ideographic. See [JIS X 4051] 6.1.1, [JLREQ] 3.1.7 or [UAX14].

N.B. U+3095, U+3096, U+30F5, U+30F6 are considered to be neither hiragana nor katakana.

"MASU_MARK() => LB_ID"

U+303C MASU MARK.

N.B. Although this character is not kana, it is usually regarded as abbreviation to sequence of hiragana ま す or katakana マ ス, MA and SU.

N.B. This character is classified as non-starter (NS) by [UAX #14] and as the class corresponding to ID by [JIS X 4051] and [JLREQ].

Ambiguous Quotation Marks

By default, some punctuations are ambiguous quotation marks (QU).

"BACKWARD_QUOTES() => LB_OP, FORWARD_QUOTES() => LB_CL"

Some languages (Dutch, English, Italian, Portugese, Spanish, Turkish and most East Asian) use rotated-9-style punctuations (‘ “) as opening and 9-style punctuations (’ ”) as closing quotation marks.

"FORWARD_QUOTES() => LB_OP, BACKWARD_QUOTES() => LB_CL"

Some others (Czech, German and Slovak) use 9-style punctuations (’ ”) as opening and rotated-9-style punctuations (‘ “) as closing quotation marks.

"BACKWARD_GUILLEMETS() => LB_OP, FORWARD_GUILLEMETS() => LB_CL"

French, Greek, Russian etc. use left-pointing guillemets (« ‹) as opening and right-pointing guillemets (» ›) as closing quotation marks.

"FORWARD_GUILLEMETS() => LB_OP, BACKWARD_GUILLEMETS() => LB_CL"

German and Slovak use right-pointing guillemets (» ›) as opening and left-pointing guillemets (« ‹) as closing quotation marks.

Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish use 9-style or right-pointing punctuations (’ ” » ›) as both opening and closing quotation marks.

IDEOGRAPHIC SPACE

"IDEOGRAPHIC_SPACE() => LB_BA"

U+3000 IDEOGRAPHIC SPACE won't be placed at beginning of line. This is default behavior.

"IDEOGRAPHIC_SPACE() => LB_ID"

IDEOGRAPHIC SPACE can be placed at beginning of line. This was default behavior by Unicode 6.2 and earlier.

"IDEOGRAPHIC_SPACE() => LB_SP"

IDEOGRAPHIC SPACE won't be placed at beginning of line, and will protrude from end of line.

East_Asian_Width Properties

Some particular letters of Latin, Greek and Cyrillic scripts have ambiguous (A) East_Asian_Width property. Thus, these characters are treated as wide in "EASTASIAN" context. Specifying "EAWidth => [ AMBIGUOUS_"*"() => EA_N ]", those characters are always treated as narrow.

"AMBIGUOUS_ALPHABETICS() => EA_N"

Treat all of characters below as East_Asian_Width neutral (N).

"AMBIGUOUS_CYRILLIC() => EA_N"

"AMBIGUOUS_GREEK() => EA_N"

"AMBIGUOUS_LATIN() => EA_N"

Treate letters having ambiguous (A) width of Cyrillic, Greek and Latin scripts as neutral (N).

On the other hand, despite several characters were occasionally rendered as wide characters by number of implementations for East Asian character sets, they are given narrow (Na) East_Asian_Width property just because they have fullwidth (F) compatibility characters. Specifying "EAWidth" as below, those characters are treated as ambiguous --- wide on "EASTASIAN" context.

"QUESTIONABLE_NARROW_SIGNS() => EA_A"

U+00A2 CENT SIGN, U+00A3 POUND SIGN, U+00A5 YEN SIGN (or yuan sign), U+00A6 BROKEN BAR, U+00AC NOT SIGN, U+00AF MACRON.

Configuration File¶

Built-in defaults of option parameters for "new" and "config" method can be overridden by configuration files: Unicode/LineBreak/Defaults.pm. For more details read Unicode/LineBreak/Defaults.pm.sample.

Incompatible Changes¶

Release 2012.06

Conformance to Standards¶

Character properties this module is based on are defined by Unicode Standard version 8.0.0.

This module is intended to implement UAX14-C2.